QUILLA IS HOME......!!!!

We got home with Quilla about 8pm last night.  It was a long day & of course we were met in the driveway by a grumpy bunch of "starving" donkeys.  

I think they might have given us the wrong donkey.  Quilla has been here over a year & we've always called him Mr. Marshmallow, he's always been at the bottom of the pecking order, anyone could run him off of feed.  He mostly just stood around with his head down & his ears hanging.  The donkey we brought home is ears up, alert & moving pretty fast.  When we got ready to put him in the trailer at the vets, I almost had to trot to keep up with him.  And when we got to the trailer, we figured it would be a repeat of when we put him in the trailer last week.  But he hesitated just a little bit & hopped right in.  

I would assume that the snakebite caused a flareup of liver, glucose, kidneys & whatever else they found out of whack, & things are getting back to where they should be.  His glucose is still high, so on the way home we stopped & got a glucometer.  We're having to give him insulin twice a day & checking his insulin level a couple of hours afterwards.  We are hoping the numbers will stabilize & he won't have to have insulin long term.  We'll just have to see how it goes.  His muzzle still has a few places that are pretty hard, but the swelling is almost all gone.  We'll be giving him vitamin E to hopefully help with rebuilding cells & tissue. 

Georgette rode up with us, she likes adventures & had heard so much about the clinic thought it would be fun to go see it.  She & I jabbered enough on the trip that I'm surprised John didn't tape both of our mouths shut.  Not really, John can hold his own in any conversation & was doing his fair share of talking too.  

Everyone up there at the clinic are so nice & I always get the feeling that the donkeys get the same care as the horses do.  Jennifer is one of the techs & she loves the donkeys.  She came in & said she hadn't even realized Quilla was one of ours.  Over the years she's got to know quite a few of our guys.  I teased her & told her I was surprised she didn't recognize one of our fat, scarred up donkeys.  She said she didn't even think to look at the name.  It has been awhile since we were up there I guess.............!!!

I'm learning more new skills I guess.  Not only do I have to figure out the glucometer, but I have to figure out how to get blood to use it with.  I thought you would probably poke his muzzle or inside his nostril to get blood, which I wasn't looking forward to trying.  But there is a triangle shaped bone on the cheek, & you use a needle & syringe & go in right under the bone.  It's not an exact science, judging from my attempt this morning, I have to say he was more patient than I would be, if some nut was sticking me with a needle.  Hopefully I will get better real quick.